I spent the past week teaching managerial economics in a new masters of agribusiness and entrepreneurship program at Agricultural University-Plovdiv. It was a good opportunity to reinforce (or in some cases introduce) an understanding of property rights and of the role of markets not just to coordinate resources but to elicit, reveal and transmit knowledge throughout the economy. (It was also somewhat apropos that the class ended on the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, and Nov 10 is Bulgaria’s anniversary of the end of Communist control.)
One of the issues we discussed was the sensitivity of many Bulgarians (and Europeans in general) to things like genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the food supply and the use of antibiotics and growth-stimulating hormones in meat and dairy. We discussed differences in attitudes between consumers in the US (in general) and in Europe, and differences among consumers in the US. We discussed alternate ways of responding to those sensitivities–whether government-imposed regulations or privately-organized initiatives in response to consumer demands. So news this week from the US provided two very timely examples. Continue reading “When Consumers Speak”